Self-Referent Constructs and Medical Sociology: In Search of an Integrative Framework

Abstract

A theoretical framework centering on four classes of self-referent constructs is offered as a device for integrating the diverse areas constituting medical sociology. Guidance by this framework sensitizes the researcher to the occurrence of parallel processes in adjacent disciplines, facilitates recognition of the etiological significance of findings from other disciplines for explaining medical sociological phenomena, and encourages transactions between sociology and medical sociology whereby each informs and is informed by the other.

Religiosity, Psychological Resources, and Physical Health

“…Psychological resources, in turn, have a positive effect on physical health (Kaplan 2007:105; Krause 2010:9). Self‐esteem is positively related to better self‐rated health (Schieman 2002:637) and functional ability (Rietzes and Mutran 2006:S49).…”

Agency and Change in Healthcare Organizations: Workers’ Attempts to Navigate Multiple Logics in Hospice Care

“…Unintended actions are those small adjustments in practices that are best captured through ethnographic observations. As the context changed, workers were forced to reconsider their work practices and sense of self (Kaplan 2007). Through this process, their actions came to align with medical logics, even as their discourse still emphasized the interdisciplinary team.…”

The State of the Art in Medical Sociology

“…This affects the status of medical sociology and has not gone unnoticed. Kaplan (2007) offers a theory of self-referent constructs as a way to provide a coherent stance that will enable medical sociology to explain itself to others. Pescosolido and Kronenfeld (1995) argue that medical sociology and sociology need to get better engaged with each other.…”